Making a living as a musician is no easy
task. But as a supplement to the modern day adage ‘real musicians have day
jobs,’ drummer Jay Michaelis quotes Vincent Van Gogh. “Happiness…it lies
in the joy of the achievement, in the thrill of the effort.”

Michaelis is not given to blowing his own
horn however there is ample evidence to conclude that Michaelis is ‘making
it’ as a musician. Once referred to as ‘that bad ass drummer’ by producer
Randy Jackson, Michaelis and band Solid State Logic (SSL) have caught the
attention of celebrated producer Sylvia Massy Shivy (Tool, System of a Down,
Powerman 5000.) SSL, an original, heavy alternative rock sound band with
inspirations coming from such notables as Soundgarden, Tool, Alice In Chains
and Korn, recently returned from a session at NRG recording studios in
Hollywood. Founded by recording legend Jay Baumgardner, NRG has been home
to such artists as: No Doubt, Linkin Park, Michelle Branch and Stone Temple
Pilots, to name a few. “We’re starting to get some good airplay,” said
Michaelis. SSL’s CD debut titled “Disarray” resulted in inquires from major
labels such as: Capitol Records, Warner Brothers and Geffen.

“Because of our NRG exposure, we’ve been
picked up by the Indie Label, Rogue Island Entertainment,” said Michaelis.
“One of their bands on the label just did a single (a Rogue Island and
Point Defiance release) with Snoop Dogg and it’s David Bowie’s “Fame.”
And they did it really well. Rogue Island is a hip hop label that is
reaching into the rock area; we’re pretty hyped to be brought under their
wing.”

SSL is also currently in negotiations with
the USA Network to do the music for “Dr. Steve-O” from “Jackass.” “It’s a
wait and see kind-of thing,” said Michaelis. “But to be responsible for
their theme song; that would be killer.”

The Oakland born Michaelis, who grew up in
Pacifica, California, was about 7 years old when he took up the drums. “I
was watching “The Muppets” and I saw Buddy Rich do a drum-off with Animal.
They kind of recreated a Gene Krupa/Buddy Rich drum battle from the
Fifties. I saw that kind of energy and I wanted to pick it up. The next
week my mom started me on drum lessons over at ABC Music in San Bruno.”

“I started on a pad kit,” lamented Michaelis
with a laugh. “It’s the full kit without the sound. It’s got the same
action but it really doesn’t have the same action if you know what I mean.
I used to hate it as a kid because I wanted to play on a real set. The pad
kit is what I worked on in the music store. At home I was playing the rug
and the Tupperware! I did get a snare drum. But I had four years, let me
repeat that, four long years of lessons before I got my first full set of
drums. Sorry Mom and Dad, but that was child abuse! KIDDING! I remember I
used to play on the rug to records by Kiss, Cheap Trick, Buddy Rich and old
KROQ early punk rock compilations. When I got my first kit we set them up
in the garage and I beat the crap out of them.”

Once I got drums I spent a lot of time in the
garage, woodshedding. I started playing to Stewart Copeland (Police) and
Neil Peart (Rush). I cut my teeth on old Rush and progressive rock and then
I got into Yes and then I got into metal.” By this time Michaelis was
taking drum lessons from Victor Flavianni at Manor Music in Pacifica, one of
the places where Michaelis teaches drums now.

Michaelis had his first gig at age 12 at the
infamous Mabuhay Gardens (aka The Fab Mab) on Broadway in San Francisco.
“At the time it was an old Punk Rock place. I didn’t even know till four or
five years later that the Dead Kennedys and The Ramones used to play there.
We opened for the old acid rock band: “Blue Cheer.” Here I was 12 and I had
to wait backstage, which was an alley. It was my dad and me and some
homeless people. I thought I had made the big time. This is a Wednesday
night and there were like ten people and my family in the audience. We were
a total thrash metal band and we were terrible. I was so nervous that I
didn’t cinch down the toms on my drum set and half way through the third
song the toms rolled off the stage but we kept playing. Everybody thought
it was part of the show.”

“When I was in middle school, I played in the
Terra Nova High School Band in Pacifica because they needed a drummer. The
band was under the direction of John Bentley. It was very cool. I got out
of Middle School a little bit and got to play in festivals and all kinds of
stuff. Rob Schneider opened for one of our gigs and then two years later he
was on SNL. I didn’t take band in high school though. The bottom kind-of
dropped out of music in the schools plus I was one of those metal kids and I
thought I was too cool for high school band. You miss out on a lot of stuff
when you are too cool.”

For a while Michaelis wrestled with two
career choices. “I started playing soccer around the same time that I got
really interested in drums and both things really took off. I was part of
the US Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program (ODP) as a kid. I ended up
playing in the City’s first division and in Premiere League. But I really
got beat up in soccer; I played goalkeeper. I played a little college ball
and I knew that either soccer or drums was going to pan out. In the end, or
the beginning, I chose music because for me it is more spiritually rewarding
and more of a creative outlet. I was still playing soccer up until a couple
of years ago when I busted my nose, again, and dislocated my shoulder. I
think this second nose break fixed the first one!”

“But for me, music, even when I was a kid I
just knew it was one of those things that I was good at and that I wanted to
do for the rest of my life. To do it as a living was a slow, slow process.
It was more like two days a week I’ll see if I can teach drums. But I
looked to my dad for inspiration. He, Bill Michaelis, is a Professor of
Recreation and Leisure Studies at San Francisco State. He’s the guy who,
among other things, provides those big earth balls for the annual Pacifica
Fog Fest. He is an unorthodox fellow, as am I, and he found a way to carve
out a niche. He gave me the courage. It’s crazy. Really, I don’t know
what else I would do.”

“Besides my dad’s unique doctorate he’s got a
vault of vinyl. When I was a kid I was exposed to all different kinds of
music. I grew up on Doo-Wop, Frank Zappa, Johnny Cash, The Doors, Janis
Joplin. Very eclectic music tastes and I try to carry that on. Also
providing musical inspiration was my dad’s brother who is a professional
keyboard player. On my mom’s side my grandparents were Vaudevillian
performers. Because of these people, my iPod has all kinds of stuff on it
in wild order: maybe Coltrane followed by Slayer. Good music is good music
and that’s one of things that I really teach my students.”

Michaelis spent two years at Skyline
Community College as a music major went on to San Francisco State and then
got his degree in education at Hayward State. “While I was at Skyline
College I had already started to teach drums seriously and I knew there were
some gaps in my notation and my theory. I was also working full time in an
after school program and trying to get my music business going. By studying
on my own I learned what I needed to know in terms of notation and theory
and really started filling in the gaps; enabling me to go for the well
rounded approach.”

With his life-long varied musical education,
Michaelis marvels at the talents of a wide variety of drummers. There are
still his early heroes but he’s added jazz drummers such as Jeff Hamilton,
Ed Shaughnessey, Art Blakey and Elvin Jones in the mix. He’s also a big fan
of Jimmy Chamberlain (Smashing Pumpkins), Stephen Perkins (Jane’s Addiction)
and Danny Carey (Tool.)

Along with his current band Solid State Logic
résumé, Michaelis recently stepped in on drums for the punk/hardcore rock
band, The Sick. He also just made a recording with the country roots band
Half Naked And The Five Fingers. “The band is Americano and good country,
you know, old school style: Johnny Cash country maybe mixed with a little
bit of Dixie Chicks,” said Michaelis. “I’ve always wanted to dabble a
little in Americano. I teach the shuffle anyway. It’s more of a jazz
approach on drums as compared to rock where I’m used to being in the
forefront as a drummer. It’s kind of refreshing to kick back a little.”
Michaelis’s ‘Five Fingers’ band mates include the steel pedal player from
Commander Cody and the bass player from the Mother Truckers.

Back in the day, Michaelis was also drummer
for the hard-core-fan successful rock band Born Naked. “Born Naked was
straight out of high school,” said Michaelis. “We started playing in 90 and
I graduated in 91. I was underage at the beginning and had to wait outside
at the clubs. We did that band for twelve years. We eventually added a
guitar player from Primus. Born Naked toured the States, twice. We did
thirty-five states, including Alaska, plus we made our way into Canada. We
played on the main stage in the Cow Palace.”

As to whether Michaelis can share any
favorite Born Naked gig stories, he searches his memory for any G-rated
vignettes and then selects a colorful one which he self edits.

“Our manager had booked us into four or five
shows in the winter in Alaska. Hey we had a big crowd come out to see us in
Fairbanks; 80 people! We flew into Anchorage in December and it was winter
solstice and there was only about four hours of sunlight. It’s weird; you
don’t know when to stop partying. The sun comes up at 11:30 in the morning;
though it’s kind of cool, like twilight. You have the moon and the sun right
next to each other with Denali in the background and it’s beautiful. So the
band is flying in and there is a winter storm and at 500 feet the plane does
this 45 degree turn and we are right over the glaciers. Needless to say, we
are nervous, make that incredibly scared. We finally make it onto the black
ice tarmac and that was the beginning of our adventure. This is in 1998 and
the booker hired two bands from San Francisco and proceeded to put us in a
15-seater van. Our first show was in Fairbanks, which was at least a six or
seven hour trip. So we’re cruising along and half way to North Pole the
city, there’s a little bar called Skinny Dick’s Halfway Inn. The sign
outside the Inn shows two polar bears in a compromising position. We’re
there with a punk rock band from San Francisco and the lead singer is a
large lesbian with a bit of a chip on her shoulder and she had pink and
purple hair. We all walk in. It’s off season at Skinny’s. Here we are,
two bands from San Francisco at Skinny Dick’s, probably not a usual
sighting. There is one local at the bar, with the designer crack hanging
out, and Skinny is behind the bar polishing glasses. Grandma Skinny,
probably Mrs. Skinny, is over on the side playing pinochle. So the singer
goes up to the bar and we’re all pretty weary and Skinny asks her: “I just
have to ask you. When you were dyeing your hair did you make a double batch
to match your sn**tch?” Everybody’s jaw just dropped. It wasn’t a very
nice thing to say but even the singer started laughing. It kind of melted
the ice, in Alaska no less! So she asked the guy after listening to that
kind of comment did she get a free drink. “Nope.”

Regarding SSL stories, Michaelis said simply:
“When we play LA we often stay at the Bel Age in West Hollywood. We’re all
pretty professional but I’m sure the maids could tell some stories.”

Michaelis is endorsed by five different drum
companies. “I get free drums from Thumper Custom Drums. I get sticks from
Pro-Mark and drumheads from Aquarian. I have an artist endorsement with Paiste Cymbals and I have a hardware endorsement with DW Drums. Back in 1996
I was in Drum! Magazine and I won their New Blood contest. They sent
me a $600 hand hammered Italian cymbal – which I donated to the music
program at Terra Nova High School. It’s a great cymbal, what was I
thinking? That garnered the attention of DW and I got an artist endorsement
with them. An artist endorsement means 10 percent below cost. That
endorsement was followed by a full endorsement from Thumper. All you
drummers out there, once you get one endorsement, the rest arrive.”

Michaelis’s teaching schedule is daunting but
he loves it. One day a week he teaches the award-winning Ingrid B. Lacy
Middle School drum line. He is also doing the drum line for Terra Nova High
School. He wrote the game cadence for San Francisco’s Riordan High School.
He has private students in three different school districts and various
adults, including a Stanford Music professor with a PhD in composition. His
student to teacher ratio is 65 to 1. He teaches all different styles
including: Scottish piping drums, Bossa Nova, rock, metal, jazz, salsas and
world percussion but world percussion on a kit. Besides that he tunes drums
which he learned under the guidance of the drum tech for Steve Smith of
Journey. In his spare time he also does session work for a flat fee.

“I’ve also filled in for a friend in
orchestra,” said Michaelis. “It was at the Scottish Rites Temple in Oakland
and it was a Christmas Revels performance. It was probably the most
terrifying thing I’ve ever done; definitely trial by fire. I did the
timpani and got a scale wage. Timpanists prefer the French grip so I
learned it.”

As to that ever important question, matched
or traditional grip, Michaelis does traditional. “Traditional grip goes
back to the Revolutionary War when soldiers would have the drum attached to
their leg and they would attack it from the side. Matched grip, both hands
match and it’s easier to get around the kit. There’s kind of a stigma for
rock players to use the matched grip but I played punk rock using the
traditional. Military styles, like rolls and drum lines, still use
traditional and I teach it, but it is becoming a lost art.”

Meanwhile Jay is on the circuit with Solid
State Logic playing at least: The Great American Music Hall and Slims (San
Francisco); and the Key Club, Viper Room and Knitting Factory (LA). SSL was
also one of the five finalists in the “Garageband Faceoff” and their music
video “It’s Not Over” has climbed Internet music video charts including
Mania TV. Plus Jay’s relatively recent entrance into the already
established “The Sick” means – activity.

“You’ve just got to keep
at music,” said Michaelis. “Success comes in a lot of different packages
and ‘making it’ has many definitions. Stay true to your integrity and good
things happen.”